It took 350 years to come up with the list of shame for the original 50 People Who Stuffed Up South Africa, published to critical acclaim in 2010. But it’s taken only ten more years to come up with the next 50…
From Shaun Abrahams to Mosebenzi Zwane, 50 People Who F***ed Up South Africa is filled with the architects and beneficiaries of state capture who have defined The Lost Decade. There’s Dlamini, there’s Zuma and there’s Dlamini-Zuma. There are the Guptas, Geoghegan and Gigaba.
There’s a malady of “M”s – Mabuza, Magashule, Mahumapelo (and many more mofos). There are the crony-corporate enablers and big business abusers. Importantly, there are clean takedowns of those who represent the scandals that will live in infamy when the history of this time is written: Eskom, Nkandla, Marikana, Life Esidimeni, Steinhoff, Bosasa, VBS Mutual Bank… And then there is the joker in the pack (Niehaus), the naked emperor (Survé), the zombie killer (Pistorius), the Twittering twit (Zille) and the twit who got past security (Thamsanqa Jantjie).
The end result is a readable, accessible, entertaining overview of South Africa’s recent political and socioeconomic landscape. Because sometimes humour (along with a clearly painted picture) really is the best coping mechanism…
